Welcome back to Mike Ferry TV. My name is Tony Smith, speaker and coach for the Mike Ferry organization, and I am thrilled to be here on the week of November 25th. Happy Thanksgiving this week to all of you in the US. Those of you in Canada, you experienced Thanksgiving 2 or 3 weeks back. Okay, so today we’re going to spend a little time talking about a little series of thoughts about succeeding. If you know Mike Ferry at all, you know that he spent the early part of his career under three mentors, Earl Nightingale, Günther Klaus, and Mike Vance. We’re going to talk a little bit about a checklist for success from Earl Nightingale today. Okay. I’m assuming everybody here that’s watching today has really strong goals to be successful. And if you do, why not learn from the best? I know Mike Ferry did. Well, you know, when I go through this checklist, there’s not one part of this that Mike Ferry himself doesn’t operate under each and every day. He runs his life by this checklist, so maybe we should too.

1) Goals

The first thing on Earl’s checklist for success is goals. Now, by definition, Earl Nightingale said that success is the progressive realization of a worthwhile goal or objective. Do you have some strong, powerful goals for yourself for 2025? How strong were your goals for yourself in the calendar year this year of 2024? Are you being driven by some powerful, exciting, compelling goals for yourself? If you want to be successful, you have to use goals as the driving force. So how good are you at creating powerful goals for yourself? I always write this question, what goal are you most excited about achieving next? Is it a production goal? Is it a personal goal? Is it a health and fitness goal? Is it a travel goal? I don’t know. The sky’s the limit. But if you want to succeed, it needs to be driven by goals.

2) Attitude

The second thing on the checklist from Earl Nightingale is attitude. Okay. And Earl, put it like this. Alter your life by changing your attitude. Attitude is everything, isn’t it? If you really think about what is your attitude about the current market conditions where you sell Real Estate, what is your attitude about learning a canned presentation? What is your attitude about prospecting daily for listings? What is your attitude about following a productive schedule? Where do you need to do a little bit of an attitude adjustment for yourself? If you can appreciate Earl’s thought here that if we maintain the right attitude, most of the time we’re succeeding. Okay. I put Mike Ferry next to this one for sure. I don’t know about you, but I know for a fact that Mike Ferry lives his life with one of the strongest, most positive overall attitudes of any other businessperson I know, and he succeeds at a high level.

3) Think for yourself 

Look at the third thing on this checklist from Earl. Think for yourself. Think for yourself. And he wrote, independent thinking is crucial, independent thinking. Now, I know you’re an independent contractor. You’re a Real Estate salesperson. You’re an independent contractor. Where are you following the masses of maybe non-producing agents? You know, I think the whole Mike Ferry sale system was built on the 180 degree rule, which means study what the mass of Real Estate agents do, and then go 180 degrees in the opposite direction. Okay, that is independent thinking, by the way. Let’s not follow agents that are not productive. Let’s consider ones that are. Where do you need to do a little bit stronger thinking for yourself. Do you need to think more about your plans? Do you need to think more about the sources you work? Where do you need to spend more time thinking?

4) Cause and effect

Look at the next one. Cause and effect. Earl Nightingale said understand the relationship between actions and outcomes. If you want to succeed, you need to have an understanding of the actions you take and the outcomes you have. Do you know how many transactions you’ve closed so far in 2024? Are you happy with the outcome? I hope so. If you’re not happy with the outcome, you have to go back and look at what actions do I need to change? Does your business plan for 2025 have some solutions to the challenges you have? Do you need to change some of your actions? Do you need to do more prospecting? Do you need to learn stronger skills? Do you need to follow a stronger morning routine? Where do you need to change your actions that will result in better outcomes?

5) Truth

Look at this one. Okay. Truth. Earl Nightingale says that if you want a checklist for success, you have to understand truth. And he wrote down seek and embrace truth. Do you know your numbers for 2024? It’s the truth. However, many deals you’ve closed and how much income you’ve made and how many contacts you’ve made, prospecting all of that is the truth. Are you exploring it? Are you embracing the truth? Do you need to investigate a little stronger truth with your finances? How about truth with your production, your health, your mindset? If you’ll be on a journey to understand truth, you will be more successful in the real estate business. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but a lot of real estate agents spend a lot of time avoiding the truth. Okay, what we know is admitting you have a problem is half of the battle. Where do you need to see truth? How about this one? Research and development. Earl said that if you want to succeed, you need to understand research and develop continuously, learn and improve. In my world, that’s easy. Just follow The Mike Ferry Sales System. Follow The Mike Ferry Organization. Follow Mike. Follow the coaches because we’re relentless at having you understand improvement. Are you developing as a salesperson? What are you most proud of improving as a salesperson so far this year? What do you need to improve next? How about research? Do you know what your market is doing? Do you know the market stats? Are you researching the stats and delivering them to the public? Where do you need to spend more time in research and development?

6) Checklist

And then the last one that Earl gave us. Checklist. The strangest secret. Okay. And if you know Earl Nightingale, you need to listen to the strangest secret. Understand the power of your thoughts and of your imagination. Okay. What are you thinking about? Earl was famous to say that you become what you think about most of the time. Are you thinking about the production goals you have? Are you spending time really visualizing yourself as that incredible salesperson? Can you imagine yourself doing 30, 40, 50, 100 deals a year? Are you spending time really measuring your thoughts? If you think about it okay, your imagination is a big part of success. Can you just simply imagine where you could take this business in 2025? Can you imagine where you can take it in the next 3 to 5 years? The sky is the limit, isn’t it? So, let’s take this little series of thoughts that Earl gave us a checklist, if you will. Maybe you should critique yourself. Maybe you should apply some of this checklist in your life. And guess what? You will succeed at the highest level possible. I hope you enjoy the holidays. I hope you enjoy Thanksgiving. Man, there is a ton to be grateful for in our world today. Thank you for your time today.